Cooking with Dr. Monkey

Today's episode: torte di patate.  (Potato tart)

I got this recipe out of the Italian cook book Flavors of Tuscany.

I started out by chopping four large red skinned potatoes.  I chopped them into chunks and as you can see I left the thin peels on.  I covered them with water and put them on to boil.

As the potatoes cooked, I chopped up and sauteed one large white onion and some cherry tomatoes that I had on hand and were about to go bad.  As that cooked I spread some olive oil in my pie pan and then I spread about 3 tablespoons of panko crumbs over the oil.

Into my onions and cherry tomatoes I put two sweet Italian sausages.  I removed the skins before I put them in my pan.  As the sausages cooked with the onions and tomatoes, I crumbled them into smaller bite sized pieces.

While all that cooked, I lightly beat two eggs:

When my potatoes were good and soft, I drained them and mashed them.  I put in about two tablespoons of olive oil and mixed it in them.  Notice I did not say I whipped the potatoes. If you whip them they will not work for this recipe, and honestly, fuck whipped potatoes.  I mixed in the now cooked sausage, onions, and tomatoes and then I added the beaten eggs.  I mixed it all up and then I put the mixture in my pie pan:

Next I sprinkled on the top of my potato sausage mix about a quarter cup of finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and then on top of that I sprinkled three tablespoons of panko.  I then put my torte in my oven which had been heated up to 375 F.  I baked it for 25 minutes and this is what it looked like when it came out:

The verdict: it was fucking delicious.  Seriously.  How could potatoes, onion, sausage, eggs, cheese, and breadcrumbs baked together not be good.  It's great tasting hearty cold weather dish.  I'll definitely make this one again.